study on the ancestral temple of minxi hakka …minxi hakka people embraces much advanced blood...

Abstract—The paper has taken the Zhixi Village for example,

the most typical one of Minxi Hakka villages, analyzing the

changes of such villages from the beginning of development of

the patriarchal clan, then further discussing the impact of

Ancestral Temple layout on the village texture form and finally

making a conclusion of the types and characteristics of the

Ancestral Temple buildings.

Index Terms—The ancestral temple, village form, Minxi

Hakka areas, Zhixi village.

I. INTRODUCTION

The Ancestral Temple is the place for the clansman to

worship their ancestors or sages and also an important

building type under the patriarchal system in the Chinese

rural society. In the traditional society of Han people, such

temple is a symbol of power and authority of the patriarchal

clan as well as the entrustment for the clansman to glorify and

illuminate their own ancestors. The whole clan would put all

of their energy, labor force and wealth included so as to

construct the temple grandly and magnificently.

Making a general survey of remaining Ancestral Temple

architecture types of various places dating from previous

dynasties, most of which can reflect the comparatively high

standard both in artistic style and technical skills, and

therefore became the important carrier to make a study on

Chinese traditional architecture.

Minxi, historically speaking, Tingzhou, located in the west

of Fujian province (the border of Fujian, Guangdong and

Jiangxi provinces, is one of the main native places and

settlements of Hakka. On account of the respect of ancestors

and the common patterns of Surname kinship inhabited

together, Minxi Hakka embraces much advanced blood

culture as well as the structured and strict family system,

moreover, the corresponding family economy benefited from

the relative stability of the mountain rice civilization and the

farming form of blood groups, they had combined the central

plain’s architectural art of Han people with the local actual

conditions, leading to the formation of large numbers of

Tulou settlement buildings with unique style and

far-reaching influence as well as the abnormally flourishing

architectural art of Ancestral Temples [1]. According to the

statistics of related materials, there are thousands of

remaining Ancestral Temples of Ming and Qing dynasty in

Minxi Hakka villages, more than 70 of which have topped

Mainland cultural relics protection sites at all levels.

Zhixi Village, located in the south of Liancheng County of

Minxi, is the typical example of Minxi Hakka villages and

also an old and rare village kept relatively intact in terms of

the overall view and building monomer within the Fujian

province, therefore, it had been awarded as the Chinese

history and culture village in 2011. The Ancestral Temples

occupy the largest proportion in the traditional customs of

Hakka architecture in this village. The village boasts

numerous of such temples, around 40 of which exist

comparatively well. It is rare to see such large quantities of

temples in contrast to other areas [2]. This paper takes the

Zhixi Village for instance to make a research about the

Ancestral Temples of Minxi Hakka areas and the influence of

such temples towards the village formation. I intend to

analyze the evolution process of human settlements from the

perspective of clan relations, probe into the effect of the

Ancestral Temple’s layout on the village texture form and

sum up the architectural characteristics of such temples.

II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CLAN AND THE EVOLUTION

PROCESS OF THE TRADITIONAL VILLAGES

A. The Overview of the Patriarchal Clan System of Zhixi

Village

Minxi Hakka people embraces much advanced blood

culture, with many small families of genetic connection

living together, that is, the production and living is in

households unit, which is made up of the couple and their

sons and daughters so as to shape a structured and strict

family system, furthermore, they advocate the ―extended

family and nuclear family‖ system with a few generations

under one roof and attach great importance to maintain the

cohesion of insiders, you can see how strong is their

patriarchal clan concept [3].

Zhixi Village is a traditional settlement composed of

Hakka people with four surnames Huang, Yang, Qiu, Hua,

and has a population of about 12,000 at present, most of

which are Huang and Yang surnamed clansmen, about 1,000

Qiu surnamed people and few Hua surnamed people. Before

the Northern Dynasty, Qiu and Hua surnamed Hakka people

had been settled down in Zhixi Village, during the period of

the late Song and early Yuan Dynasty and the Chenghua

period of Ming Dynasty, Yang and Huang surnamed Hakka

people arrived here to build the base. Until the late Qing

Dynasty, the settlement structure concentrated on Huang and

Yang surnamed people had took shape in Zhixi Village, and

Study on the Ancestral Temple of Minxi Hakka Areas in

China and Its Influence on the Village Form – Example for

Zhixi Village

Yongqian Qiu, Ping-Sheng Wu, and Min-Fu Hsu

International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 5, No. 9, September 2015

808DOI: 10.7763/IJSSH.2015.V5.561

Manuscript received May 9, 2014; revised July 13, 2014.

Yongqian Qiu is with the Department of Architecture, National Cheng

Kung University, Taiwan (e-mail: [email protected]).

the Huang, Yang, Qiu surnamed people had built hundreds of

Ancestral Temples in total, all patriarchal clans compiled

genealogical tree and reserved properties, resulting in a quite

complete clan system.

B. The Development of Patriarchal Clan and Evolution

Progress of Human Settlements of Zhixi Village

1) The choice of settlement location

The Hakka place high priority on Fengshui(geomantic

theory, Fengshui is an ancient Chinese practice of arranging

items so that they are in balance and harmony with their

environment).The choice of settlement location should have

on-the-spot investigation in accordance with the

geographical situation, and should be in balance and

harmony with the natural landscape. The location of Zhixi

Village is a typical case in point of traditional geomantic

pattern. The settlements of Huang and Yang surnamed

people are both near the mountain and by the river, Sitting

east headed west, with Taoyuan mountain backwards and

Zhishui River in front, while the settlements of Qiu surnamed

people had fronting water and hills on the back according to

the geographical terrain, forming a layout of sitting west to

east. The whole village was surrounded by mountains, with

Zhishui River flows in the middle, shaping the best living

environment in traditional agricultural society—a geomantic

layout surrounded by mountains and girdled by a river, with

the yin at its back and the yang in front (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Full view of Zhixi village.

2) The development of patriarchal clan and evolution

progress of human settlements

Qiu surnamed people was the earliest clan to settle down in

Zhixi Village, whose ancestors chose the west of Zhishui

River as the location to live because of its higher terrain near

the mountain, afterwards the Yang and Huang surnamed

people laid their bases of Ancestral Temples respectively in

Beiyuan garden and Chashankou, both of which were in

higher terrain. With the increase of population, the Qiu,

Huang, Yang surnamed people developed towards the flatter

terrain facing Zhishui River, with the Ancestral Temples in

its center (see Fig. 2).

Due to the Zhishui River as the natural partition, Qiu

surnamed people took northeast as the main development

direction and therefore formed an independent

single-surname structure. However, the settlements of Huang

and Yang surnamed people took northwest as the main

development direction, and owing to the rapid increase of

population, the distribution was intersected, but the

characteristic of branch Ancestral Temples concentrated on

each surname and each household as well as the relatively

concentrated layout could also be recognized from the view

of local structure. For example, the surrounding areas

centered on Yanghui and Junting Ancestral Temples are

basically the Yang surnamed people’s settlements, while the

surrounding areas centered on Wenchen and Wenqing as

well as the Chengchuan Ancestral Temples are undoubtedly

the Huang surnamed people’s settlements, which show

intense Biological characteristics.

In general, the whole Zhixi Village stretches east to west,

forming a layout that the ancestral bases embraces outwardly

natural growth from the perspective of plane modality, which

seems to be out-of–order but actually implies the logic of

organic and unconstrained dendrites’ growth.

Fig. 2. The evolution of the settlements in Zhixi village.

III. THE TRADITIONAL VILLAGE LAYOUT INFLUENCED BY

THE ANCESTRAL TEMPLES

A. The Choice of Location of Ancestral Temples and

Distribution

The Hakka believe that the Ancestral Temple stands for

the ancestor and is also the most important place to

worshiptheir own ancestors. So it is necessary to devote

particular care to the architecture geomancy of such temples

so as to more properly settle the ancestral spirits and the

generations can also get more blessings from their ancestors.

[4] In the heart of Zhixi Hakka, the temples are also the

symbol of family and generally located in the most centered

or most important site of the settlement of different surnamed

people. For instance, the temple base of Huang family is

excellent, with the moon pool in front and mountains

backwards, which conform to the traditional geomantic

pattern that fronting water and with hills on the back, with the

yin at its back and the yang in front.


809

Zhixi Village is a living place of many surnamed people,

all of them had built the central Ancestral Temples to offer

sacrifice to their kin ancestors after the base-built in Zhixi.

Along with the increase of family population, all branches of

the clansman, with Ancestral Temples—centered, multiplied

outwardly and established individual branch temple. In terms

of level, the central temple is higher than the branch

Ancestral Temple, whose daily activities and management

are all independent except taking part in the-whole-clan

activities such as ancestor worship and family genealogy

compiling. Hence, with the development and progress of the

patriarchal clan, Zhixi Village gradually shaped the spatial

classification of ancestor worship of Ancestral Temples—

branch temples—central temples, then the distribution is

stretched from the higher-terrain temples towards wider areas

facing the Zhishui River, constituting a pattern of

arborization. The Qiu surnamed people’s temples are

relatively centralized while the Huang and Yang surnamed

people’s temples are staggered.

B. The Village Texture form Affected by the Ancestral

Temples

As the important material entity of patriarchal system, the

Ancestral Temple profoundly influences the growth of whole

village texture form. Zhixi Village developed centering on

the Ancestral Temples, the branch household on account of

the split of patriarchal clan divides spatial domain according

to the blood relatives within the territory of the temples and

shaped their own independent living groups centered on the

branch temples. Each family of each group formed their own

smaller groups, which was also surrounded by the proximate

grade Ritual center—made up of branch temples or family’s

Ancestral Temples. Consequently the village is formed as the

multilevel spatial structure with Ancestral Shrine as the focus,

and several branch temples and family Ancestral Temples as

its sub center. Each temple has a mini-square for the

gathering of clan members, the layout of buildings around

and street organizations are both relatively neat, becoming

the significant space joint of the village.

In the village, owing to the high space level, the Ancestral

Temple is regarded as the hub of patriarchal clan lifeblood

and has a sacred and inviolable status. Therefore, the

newly-built architecture layout affected by the concept of

clan system will abide by the Axis direction of the temples.

Through observation we can find that the temples located in

Zhixi Village will to some extent influence the combination

form of the surroundings: the single axis of the surrounding

buildings basically coincide with the orientation of the

Ancestral Temples while the cluster combined by the temples

with the buildings structurally spread out here and there in

the village (see Fig. 3). However, from the perspective of the

whole village, the texture form of which are not constructed

completely the same with the orientation of the temples, in

the edge of the village and surroundings along the Zhishui

River, the form tends to be more liberal and organic(see Fig.

4). The reason of such layout may be the relatively late

construction ages; moreover, the buildings had a

comparatively far distance away from the temples, the

influence of such temples towards the buildings is much

weaker.

Fig. 3. The distribution of surrounding buildings of ancestral temples.

Fig. 4. The distribution of surrounding buildings of non-ancestral temples.

IV. THE ARCHITECTURAL FEATURE OF THE ANCESTRAL

TEMPLE IN ZHIXI VILLAGE

A. The Types of the Ancestral Temples

The Ancestral Temples in Zhixi Village have two basic

types, one is pure temples built specially for the ancestor

worship but not used for living, with standing management

body of each clan and organization, supervised by

specially-assigned person, and the other one is ―temple and

place of residence in unity‖, that is, the axle wire hall is the

space of the temple while the horizontal house is the

residence. The vast majority of the existing Ancestral

Temples in Zhixi Village are all the latter type, which means

that the whole dwelling changed into rooms of the temple or

the original axle wire hall partly upgraded as the Ancestral

Temples, while the horizontal house remains its function of

living. The planar system of the above-mentioned two types

of temples resembles the spatial arrangement, in spite of the

numerous Ancestral Temples, their plane layout and spatial

pattern are both programmed, what makes the difference is

the discrepancy of scale, width and size [5].

B. Architectural Feature

The elemental architectural form of the Ancestral Temples

in Zhixi Village is ―two depth, three bay width‖, structured

by upper and lower halls, between which boasts patio. Each

hall covers a large area, with wing-rooms besides it. In the

architecture of ―temple and place of residence in unity‖, the

temple is always built in the core location of the house so as

to worship the ancestors for the convenience of the clan

people. The vast majority of such architecture boasts grand

scale, taking the Huang surnamed people’s Yuxi Ancestral

Temple for example it covers a large area and embraces 101

large or small rooms.

The Ancestral Temple

The Ancestral Temple


810

Most of the Ancestral Temples in Zhixi Village are

particular about the form of gates, which is the appearance of

a building, reflecting the status of the owner of the house. The

roof of all the Ancestral Temples’ gate has cornice and rake

angle, and the upturned roof-ridge is decorated with trespe

and grey models, which seems to be rather dexterous. Most of

the cornices are decorated with grey models and colour

paintings, which are simple and elegant as well as

unsophisticated, teemed with artistic expression (see Fig. 5).

The decoration of the Ancestral Temples in Zhixi Village

is also diverse. Besides the entrance gate, the hall (especially

the upper hall) shall add the ceiling, some even uses caisson

on the ceiling, draws color painting in the purline or beam or

bracket set with some mascots such as flowers and plants,

birds and animals, showing the magnificence, as well as the

solemn, elegant and respectful implication.

Fig. 5. The gate of ancestral temples.

V. CONCLUSION

From the above-mentioned discuss, we can see that the

choice of base--built of the ancestors in Zhixi is deeply

affected by the geomancy concept, and pay much attention to

be in harmony with the natural environment. With the

development of the agnation, the human settlements are

stretched from the relatively higher terrain towards the

direction of the river, shaping the mixed layout of the

independent Qiu surnamed people and Huang, Yang

surnamed people. The patriarchal clan system of ―extended

family and nuclear family‖ had formed the ancestor worship

spatial classification of Ancestral Temple—branch Ancestral

Temple—centered Ancestral Temple, and also affected the

construction axis of the surrounding buildings of the temples,

then further influences the whole texture form of the village.

The elemental architectural form of the Ancestral Temples in

Zhixi is ―two depth, three bay width‖, the internal

architecture lays emphasis on the decoration and boasts grand

and magnificent gates, which is a concentrated reflection of

Clan culture and regional culture of Zhixi Hakka.

REFERENCES

Ping-Sheng Wu is currently working as an associate

professor of Department of Architecture in National

Cheng Kung University. He received his PHD at

Department of Architecture of National Cheng Kung

University. His research interests are architectural

histories and cultural heritage conservation.

Min-Fu Hsu is a distinguished professor at

Department of Architecture of National Cheng Kung

University. His research interests are architectural

histories and cultural heritage conservation.


811

[1] J. Lin and H. Lin, Hakka Tulou and Hakka Culture, Taipei: Boyuan

Publishing Co. Ltd., 1992, p. 305.

[2] Z. Dai, Fujian Dwellings, Beijing: China Architecture & Building

Press, 2009, p. 113.

[3] Y. Zhang, ―Forms and functions of hakka kindreds in west Fujian,‖

Journal of Longyan Teachers College, vol. 23, pp. 90-94, February

2005.

[4] X. Lin and S. Qi, ―Discussion on the causes of popular Fengshui in

Hakka rural areas and the view of Fengshui on Hakka ancestral

temple,‖ Agricultural Archaeology, vol. 6, pp. 221-224, December

2007.

[5] M. Wang, Study on Settlement Patterns of the Zhixi Village, Master's

Thesis of Huaqiao University Architecture Department, 2008, p. 68.

Yongqian Qiu was born in Fujian, China on March

12, 1979. He received his master of engineering at

School of Architecture and Urban Planning in

Huazhong University of Science and Technology in

2007. And he is currently a doctoral student of

Department of Architecture in National Cheng Kung

University, Taiwan. And he is also a lecturer of

College of Architecture and Urban Planning in Fujian

University of Technology. His research interests are architectural histories

and cultural heritage conservation.

study on the ancestral temple of minxi hakka …minxi hakka people embraces much advanced blood...

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